Futures higher after positive China factory data

(Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures were higher on Monday, after closing down the previous week, as investors focused on the bright spots in China's factory activity data and ahead of a string of domestic economic data.

* Growth in China's giant factory sector edged up to a six-month high in May but export demand shrank again, reinforcing the view that more stimulus would have to be rolled out in the coming months.

* The weeks brings with it a spate of U.S. data, culminating with the job report on Friday, which investors will peruse for clues on the timing of a rate hike.

* Data on Monday is expected to show that both personal income and construction spending rose in April. Personal income data is due at 8:30 a.m. ET (1230 GMT).

* The ISM releases its manufacturing index for May, which is expected to have increased to 52.0 from 51.5 in April. The PMI and construction spending data are due at 10:00 a.m. ET.

* Intel shares were up 0.6 percent at $34.68 in premarket trading on reports that the company was nearing a deal to buy programmable-chip maker Altera . Altera rose 5.4 percent to $51.50.

* Citigroup was up 1.5 percent at $54.90 on a Wall Street Journal report that the bank is expected to close its troubled Banamex USA unit. Goldman Sachs upgraded the stock to "buy" from "neutral".

* CTi BioPharma rose 5.7 percent to $2.05 in heavy trading after the drug developer presented positive data on its blood cancer drug.

* Molycorp fell 5.7 percent to $0.50 after the WSJ reported the rare earth miner is expected to skip a loan payment, which might lead to a bankruptcy filing.

Futures snapshot at 7:47 a.m. ET:

* S&P 500 e-minis were up 8.75 points, or 0.42 percent, with 147,568 contracts traded.

* Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 25 points, or 0.55 percent, on volume of 24,581 contracts.

* Dow e-minis <1YMc1> were up 90 points, or 0.5 percent, with 24,787 contracts changing hands.

(Reporting by Tanya Agrawal; Editing by Savio D'Souza)

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